Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Bit of a mess

Chivas USA has dropped two consecutive games after Sunday's 2-0 setback to FC Dallas. Chivas hasn't lost three in a row since the dark days of 2005, and had gone almost one year since losing back-to-back games. But while the club has issues that need sorting out, it's not exactly time to write the season off.Now, I'll say the same thing about any team in the league. After all, you don't win MLS Cups in April, and it's not exactly the EPL where two early-season losses can pretty much destroy a team's title aspirations.A year ago, Houston started off 2-5-1 and even lost three consecutive games to finish off May, and they turned out okay.So far this year, DC and Chivas have looked like shit while Houston can't win a game. What does it mean? Nothing. It's April. It means nothing. These teams have plenty of time to get their acts together, and each of these teams has an ample amount of character.So go ahead and write these teams off if you will. Just be prepared to welcome them back in at some point later this season.

I feel that this is one of the problems with MLS. Early games just dont matter too much. It makes for a boring start when there's not fierce competition throughout.

I remember last game of the season for the Galaxy and how exciting it was to have so much meaning attached to the Chicago game. It got people excited.

If only we could have that excitement at every game, I feel the interest in the league would be much better. For now, only diehard will watch the season start to finish, while the other potential soccer fans will probably tune in late just to watch the race for the playoffs. As long as there's a playoff system, early season games just wont mean that much, because everyone isnt playing for a "top spot", they're playing just to "make it in." And if the MLS playoffs have shown us anything, its that the best teams aren't always rewarded...

Its not that Preki isn't a good coach its just the players they have been bringing in are this year are just...average:-(!! Bradley did a great job of spotting talent and building the team. This season is more of Preki's baby and so far its not so good.